Posts Tagged "BSETC"

Launch Strategy for a New Blog

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Nov 10, 2011 in Business Tips, How-To, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Web & Technology | 4 comments

Launch Strategy for a New Blog

Announcing a new blog is an exciting thing for most web-based business owners because you now have this interactive platform for your audience to engage with you from.  If you didn’t have a blog before (and if you were also lacking a social media presence), you may not have any idea who is out there enjoying your work.  Launching a blog opens the doors to get to know your online audience in a more intimate way.

Since you have two groups of people — those who know you now and those who don’t yet know you — the blog strategy needs to incorporate both of these groups.  It is important to personally invite the people who know, like and trust you into the environment but it is equally as important to set up some things that will attract in new prospects as that is the goal of your blog.

Reader Question: How to Get More Facebook Fans

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Mar 15, 2011 in Facebook, How-To, Social Media | 11 comments

Reader question:

I have 270 people on my Facebook Fan Page, how do I get more to follow me?

I’ve already done the suggest to friends button to invite the people on my profile page. I have some new friends on my profile page but I was waiting to establish a relationship with them since I have spoken to these people in years.

I was thinking of having a contest/draw for a complimentary service by asking people to invite their friends when I reach a certain amount of people and then have another contest later to continue increasing the number until I reach at least 500.

What do you think?

Response:

The process of gaining new friends, fans, followers, etc. is an interesting one and one that I get asked about a lot.  The truth is, there is no real magic formula to getting your number of fans to go up.

Think of it this way… if you walked into a networking event and just stood in the corner or at the bar, you wouldn’t get to know very many people, right?  Or, if you were delivering a seminar but you were dry, boring and the information you shared was regurgitated, you aren’t going to necessarily walk away with people who loved what you did.  People want authenticity and they want interesting.

Making friends, fans or followers on social media comes from having interesting things to say, interesting resources to share and forging relationships with the people you meet.  It also comes from the value you give to the community.

There is this perception on social media that more followers / friends / fans = success.  It’s just not the truth.  You could have 100,000 fans on your Facebook page but the real value is in knowing how many of those people listen to what you have to say, interact with you and interact with the other people you’ve attracted.

However, that being said, there are some ways that you can attract more people to you.

• Start a blog. If you aren’t blogging yet, do so!  You can utilize the blog as a feeder system into your other outlets.  For example, you could start a blog post on your blog but have the rest of it posted as a note on your Facebook fan page which will drive people there.  Blogs allow you to give the ultimate amount of value and they never disappear so you benefit from them for a long time to come.
• Interact in groups, pages, etc. to find other similar people. Sometimes the “if you build it, they will come” idea just doesn’t work.  Instead, you have to go out and find people to friend, fan or follow.  Once those relationships are being built, you’ll naturally find people who are ideal for your world.
• Contests are a great idea – when done correctly (see examples at bottom of post). There is something to be said about a good Facebook fan page contest but there is even more to be said about the bad contests.  The goal here is to create something of interest that will want people to come to your site but you also don’t want to come across as saying, “I just want MORE fans!”  Yes, that is the end result but saying so might make your current “fans” think, “Well… I wonder what’s wrong with the lot of us that is here!”

After you gain new “fans”, building the relationship and having them stay a long-time “fan” is something you’ll have to work on personally and that will just take time, authenticity and a little effort.

Do you have an interesting way that you, or someone you know, has used to gain more fans on Facebook? If so, leave it as a comment so we can continue the discussion!

***

Here are some examples of Facebook fan page contests that have worked.  Thank you to my friends on Twitter for providing the references!

• From @DLPhotography – a contest to drive people to the Facebook fan page: http://www.daniellelynnphotography.com/all-posts/firstbirthday-ottawa-photographer/
• From @NtQtSouthSurrey – @Klutchphoto is hosting a contest for her photography business as well: http://klutchphotography.com/blog/?p=280

Also, before you do a contest, be sure to read the Facebook Promotion Guidelines!  There are some distinct rules you need to follow.  If you prefer a short cut, this blog post sums up the rules nicely.

Erin, You’re All About the Money!

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Aug 9, 2010 in Business Tips | 20 comments

This weekend and past week, I’ve had the unfortunate experience of dealing with a non-paying client.  Generally speaking, we collect pre-payment on all services and then keep detailed time logs of the work that is complete.  We allow our clients to have a period of time to look over the time logs and if they have anything they are unhappy with or wish to clarify, they can do so and we work with them to ensure that they are satisfied.

Every once in awhile, I’ll meet a client who is just awesome.  Or, at least it starts that way.  The client is happy, excited, we finish some really great work for him/her and over time, develop a relationship that seems like it’s going to last forever.  That is until the client runs out of money.  Now, we do our best to help our clients make money but we can only do so much.  For example, if we suggest that the price on their newest program is ridiculously high and they don’t adjust it, it is not our fault if they do not sell seats into that program.

So, this past weekend, I was dealing with someone who had obviously run out of money.  How do I know this?  Their eChecks have come back NSF (non-sufficient funds) at least three times and the time between invoice and payment was getting longer and longer.  Now, since we had entered into an awesome relationship, I had allowed them to pay-as-they-went.  Yes, I know.  Stupid mistake on my part in hindsight but this person seemed like a trustworthy person who had appreciated and loved the work we had done to date.

It’s Social Baby Day! #socialbabyday

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Apr 15, 2010 in Social Media | 0 comments

It’s Social Baby Day in the web-o-verse and we thought it would be fun to share photos of our team at BSETC when they were much, much younger…

Can you guess who these cute children are?  Leave a comment!

#1 — Who is this precious baby??

#2 — I’m in love with the tie… Seriously.

#3 — Berets for babies were totally in style back in the 80s…

#4 – Our team member is the bright eyed baby on the left!!

#5 — Our geek-in-training is the guy on the right! He and his friend made that giant keyboard!

#6 — This trio is ADORABLE but our team mate is on the left hand side… So cute.

#7 — Look at this cute little Gerber baby!!

#8 — Omg, how cute is this little girl??

#9 — Another beautiful little girl… (whose daughter looks identical!!)

#10 — This picture just makes me smile… SO adorable!!

#11 — Another gorgeous little girl

#12 — Our team has a lot of feminine energy and here’s another beautiful girl!

#13 — Another one of our cute team members!

#14 — Although this little girl is a bit out of the baby stage, she still qualifies as one of our team member’s younger selves!!

The rest of the team was either too shy or unable to send pictures but we’ll get some of the others soon!!

Roll With the Punches

Posted by Erin Blaskie on Mar 22, 2010 in Business Tips | 5 comments

My e-mail wasn’t delivering me any messages from Basecamp. My latest broadcast went out without the ‘name’ code in it. I spelled a word incorrectly in my latest blog post and it went out to my 345,600 Twitter followers (I don’t really have that many followers by the way). A client had trouble checking out in my shopping cart.

This all happened this morning.

Okay, it didn’t really but it could have… Really, it all could have gone to h-e double hockey sticks this morning and my entire business would have crumbled and fell apart and people would have unfollowed me and boycotted my business and called me names.

Or… the people I am talking about would have realized that I’m human and that businesses everywhere make mistakes and are infallible.

Let me stop talking in hypothetical terms and bring it down to one statement: you have to learn how to roll with the punches.

Sometimes, in business, things go wrong. It’s inevitable really. When you’re building an entire business around technology, stuff happens. Things aren’t going to work or go as planned.  In fact, sometimes, you may feel like everything on the planet is butting up against your ability to be successful but guess what?  It’s not true.

Nothing is affecting your ability to be successful except for the way you handle certain things that come up. If you become upset whenever a mistake happens, there is going to be a long trailing effect from that.  Your team will be less inspired, your clients will see your anxiety and feel that they too can never make mistakes and you’ll cause yourself undue stress.

Instead of becoming upset, frustrated, stressed out, anxious or angry, try breathing through it. After you’ve taken a breath, ask yourself, “What do I need to do to fix the mistake?” Generally, it’s as easy as e-mailing your list to say, “Whoops! I called you name when really, I do know you… That wasn’t very friendly of me!”  Or, you fix the technology issue and move on.

If it’s a team member or an assistant that has made the mistake, bring it up, ask them what they can do to fix it and then move on.  Team members, clients, colleagues, etc. are all much more inspired to be around you and help you do amazing work when you can see these things for what they are – a natural by-product of running a business.

The way to stay successful is to remain calm and roll with the punches.  Otherwise, you’ll never survive the long haul.

How do you handle mistakes in your business?